In all the concrete jungle that is New York City I often go seeking for a familiar open gate and overgrown market chairs that settle under, at this time of year, laden peach and apple trees. I particularly like the willows and birches. Of course the grander parks are part of this respite, but I also delight in the rambling and smaller gated community gardens. A piece in the New York Times this week on the expiration of an agreement to protect these gardens is an alarming though continued warning to the community. The threat of losing those which are unprotected by the appropriate ordinances would appear imminent. Hopefully the voice of sanity can turn around any decision that will take such soothing spaces from our midst and replace them with more concrete and steel.
This weekend I visited several of them dotted around the Lower East Side; the noise of children jiving at birthday parties in the gardens rang in two different plots. These are an oasis of beauty and a pleasant place for meeting amidst our overly-manufactured city and selves and our very human habit of running ourselves ragged. Real Estate, Retail and Industry are not the only things worth buying:
Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things;
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children’s faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup.Life has loveliness to sell;
Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And, for the Spirit’s still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.Give all you have for loveliness;
Buy it, and never count the cost!
For one white, singing hour of peace
Count many a year of strife well lost;
And for a breath of ecstasy,
Give all you have been, or could be.‘Barter’ a poem by Sara Teasdale.
And another iteration of this:
8-9 … whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things… And the God of peace will be with you.
